If only I'd known then what I know now…

In addition to celebrating Valentine’s Day, this weekend, our family also celebrated a birthday. Our family had, not one, but two days of food, fellowship, and fun, so Ed and I are pooped on this Monday morning! Thank goodness for being retired and able to rest on Mondays 🙂

Preparation for the busy weekend actually started on Thursday, when my daughter came over and offered to help make cupcakes for Friday night’s birthday celebration. She knew I wasn’t feeling well, so she came and offered her services, for which I am deeply grateful. She and I suffer from the same types of health issues, so we understand each other’s bad days like nobody else does.

On Friday night, we officially kicked off the weekend by celebrating our oldest son’s wife, Christina’s, birthday. Christina’s actual birthday is today, but Monday’s aren’t a good time for a family get-together. Friday’s are much better! Who doesn’t love Fridays? We served crock pot bar-b-que, hot dogs, baked beans, and french fries… Not mine and Ed’s usual diet, but delicious, none the less.

Christina, the birthday girl

In preparing for Friday night’s party, I’m afraid my “old age” may have shown itself a bit when I accidentally bought a pink round tablecloth to go on my rectangular dining table. I’m sure the look on my face was priceless as I unfolded that tablecloth! However, I wasn’t going to be outdone, so I improvised. Note to self: You can make a round tablecloth work on a rectangular table–as long as you don’t mind the corners of the table being uncovered!

It was fun watching all of the grandchildren playing with each other, again, on Friday night. At mealtime, we sat all four of them at a “kids table”, for the first time. It’s hard to believe Evan’s almost past the “highchair phase” already. All of them also exchanged Valentine’s Day gifts to each other over the course of the weekend, which was “sweet”–in more ways than one!

After Friday night’s festivities, Saturday was a quieter day. I’d planned to go on a shopping trip, but postponed it when I woke up feeling tired again. Too many sleepless nights, I guess. I made some “death by chocolate” dessert, for Sunday’s lunch, and spent most of the rest of the day resting on the couch.

Later, on Saturday afternoon, our daughter and family brought Ed and I a bag filled with all kinds of Valentine’s Day goodies. Nestled among those goodies was a movie rental, so I popped some popcorn, Saturday night, and Ed and I watched the movie “Max”. It was a good movie, and a welcomed change from our usual television watching.

Sunday morning found Ed and me in the kitchen, bright and early, because I’d invited the family back over to enjoy a Valentine’s Day lunch with us. We treated everyone to a lunch of baked ham, vegetables we’d canned from our garden, cornbread plus our son-in-law’s delicious home-made biscuits, along with death by chocolate for dessert. I cooked, while Ed did “dish duty”.

Ed and I took a few moments to exchange valentines with each other before diving head first into cooking the noon meal. Let me pause, for a moment, and say how thankful I am to still have Ed around to exchange valentines with. I may have been guilty of taking this pleasure for granted, in the past, but no more! I gave Ed an “I owe you” for his German Chocolate cake because of the “death by chocolate” dessert we already had, but Ed will be enjoying his cake by the end of this week. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Ed must read my blog, because of the Valentine’s Day gifts he gave me. In Wednesday’s Hodgepodge post, I said a heart-shaped box of chocolates says love to me…and look what’s on the table! There’s also another box of chocolates in that bag!!!

Before Ed and I knew it, everyone arrived for lunch, and, once again, our kitchen was filled with food and people. We missed our oldest son, at lunch, because he was away speaking at a nearby assisted living facility (which he does every Sunday), but he was able to join us later. The last of our family left us around 7:30 Sunday evening. Yes, it was a busy, tiring weekend, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way!

I so envy you those frequent family-filled weekends/holidays!! The kiddos will have those memories with them forever! Your meals sound delicious and that box of chocolates does look like love sitting there!! Relax today!